Emperor Hanling
On December 28 of the first year of Yongkang (167 AD), Liu Zhi, the Emperor Huan of Han, died in the front hall of Deyang. Empress Dowager Dou Miao, who was in charge of the government. Because Emperor Huan of Han had no heirs to inherit the throne, Dou Miao agreed with his father, Dou Wu, the lieutenant of the City Gate School, to choose Liu Zhi's nephew Liu Hong to inherit the throne. This Liu Hong was the later Han Ling Emperor. He was the grandson of Emperor Liu Of Han. Born in the Hejian Kingdom of Jizhou, the hereditary Marquis of Xieduting, his father Liu Cang died early, and his mother Dong Shi.
Liu Hong ascended the throne at the age of 12 and changed his name to Yuan Jianning, with the three assistant ministers fu Chen Fan, the general Dou Wu, and Situ Hu Guang. During his reign, he spent most of his time practicing party and eunuch politics, building the West Garden, cleverly setting up a name to loot money, and even openly selling officials and lords to gather money for his own enjoyment. In the later years of his reign, politics decayed and darkened.
The 12-year-old Han Ling Emperor lived deep in the inner palace, and as a child, it was his nature to be playful. He hollowed out his mind to try to play new tricks. There were no donkeys in the palace, but the Han Ling Emperor had a special love for donkeys, and loved them like treasures. Every day he wandered around the palace in a donkey cart. At first, he also found a small attendant to drive a donkey cart for him, and after a few days, he was very familiar with driving, running it himself, and enjoying himself. What is good on the top will be effective on the bottom. The news that the Han Ling Emperor liked to drive a donkey cart quickly spread throughout the capital. Many dignitaries and dignitaries rushed to follow suit, and donkey cart travel soon became a fashion. For a while, people rushed to buy robust donkeys, so that the price of donkeys suddenly soared.
Donkey cart
Just when donkey carts were popular in the capital, the Han Ling Emperor soon lost interest in donkey carts. A eunuch was ingenious and carefully dressed up a dog: wearing a crown of meritocracy, a court dress, a ribbon, and a swaying carriage to the court. When the Han Ling Emperor recognized that this was a dog wearing an official uniform, not only was he not angry, but he couldn't help but clap his hands and laugh, praising and saying, What a dog official! Although the ministers of culture and martial arts who were arranged in the court were extremely ashamed of Emperor Hanling's words, they dared not speak out in anger.
Dressed dogs
After the Han Ling Emperor lost interest in donkeys and dogs, he began to do other things that made him feel funny.
In the harem, the Han Ling Emperor imitated street markets, markets, shops, stalls and vendors, and let the palace concubines dress up as merchants from all walks of life, the other part dressed as buyers and guests, and some were ordered to dress up as singers, monkeys, and storytellers. The naturally stubborn Han Ling Emperor himself put on the clothes of a merchant and pretended to be a merchant who sold goods to walk around the market he had set up, or drank and had fun in the hotel, or deliberately quarreled and fought with shopkeepers and customers. The Han Ling Emperor mixed here all day and had a lot of fun. Completely disregard the major affairs of the court, the suffering of the people. Most of the goods in the shop were rare treasures he collected from the people, and the greedy palace concubines, looking at the heartless and lungless Han Ling Emperor, only knew that they were stubborn, and they did not count these rare treasures at all, so they stole these treasures one after another. The Han Ling Emperor also turned a blind eye to this.
Liu Hong played tricks and must have enough money in his hands to support. In order to accumulate money, Liu Hong began to openly sell his official position. From the first year of Guanghe (178) to the first year of Zhongping (184), the money obtained by the Hanling Emperor from selling officials flowed into his own pocket.
The rules for selling officials are as follows: local officials are priced twice as much as court officials, while county officials are priced at different prices; and officials must also be paid according to the price for promotion. In addition to having a fixed price for official positions, it will also be adjusted at any time according to the value of the person running the official and the amount of property he owns.
Generally speaking, the price of an official position is calculated based on the official's annual salary, for example, the official price of the official position of the annual salary of 2,000 stones is 20 million yuan; the price of the official position of the annual 400 stone is 4 million yuan. That is to say, the price of an official position is ten thousand times the annual income of an official.
Sell official charts
For example, Cui Lie was born into a well-known family in the north, and successively served as a county sheriff and a secretary of state in the imperial court. In March of the second year of Zhongping, Cui Lie wanted to become a Situ, so he spent 5 million yuan to buy a Situ through connections. However, on the day of the canonization, the court held a solemn ceremony of canonization, and the Han Ling Emperor personally announced the result of the appointment in front of hundreds of officials. On this day, the Han Ling Emperor looked at Cui Lie, who was proud of the spring breeze. Suddenly, I felt that Cui Lie could get such an important position as Situ, and it was too cheap to only charge him 5 million yuan. He turned back and said to his entourage with regret, "It would be good to give him ten million dollars in the first place!" The Zhongchang waiter next to him hurriedly explained: Cui Lie can produce 5 million yuan is already very good! How could a celebrity like him easily buy an official? Your Majesty, you do not know how much work and tongue I have put into making this business a success!
Afterwards, Cui Lie's son said to him, you really should not be one of the three dukes, and there is a lot of discussion inside and outside the capital, saying that you have a copper smell. This is how the allusion "copper stinks" arises.
The highest official position in the imperial court, the three dukes (Taiwei, Situ, and Sikong), who had already been openly sold, and the Han Ling Emperor of the Ninth Five-Year Emperor, actually sold the official title like buying and selling goods, so that people felt the greed of the Han Ling Emperor on the one hand, and on the other hand, they also saw the decay and darkness of the politics at that time.
In the seventh year of Guanghe (184), the Taiping Daoists launched the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and the Taiping Daoists in the eight prefectures of the world rose up, the prefectures and counties were lost, and the imperial court was shaken. Since then, the world has been in turmoil, and China's history has entered the turbulent Three Kingdoms period.